Power of reflection on successful leadership

So it’s the end of day on a Friday and you have made it through the week in one piece! The next thought is focused on your weekend plans, where your Friday drink is going to be and whom you are going to spend your weekend with. You may also think about what’s coming up in the week after.

Often thinking about what needs to be done and scheduling your meetings. Facing forward thinking about what’s next. At what point do you stop and reflect on how our week has been, what you have achieved and how you have felt whilst doing so?

Reflection is something that not many leaders make a habit of doing. They are often very busy putting yet another fire out or have a long to do list that they need to plough through.

However, reflection is something that can make you more of an effective leader. It’s is a meta-cognition or self-reflection of your own learning process or current practices.

“We do not learn from our experiences…we learn from reflecting on experience,” says John Dewey, author of How we Think. We may often find ourselves in the similar situations and wonder, why does this keep happening to me? The answer is because you keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Reflection can help us see what we may need to change and adapt to get a different result.

If we are to improve our leadership skills then it is important we have a high level of self-awareness, understanding our strengths, weaknesses, behavioural habits and relationships.

These things are difficult to understand if we do not reflect on them. A common belief many leaders have is that they do not have time to reflect. Well what if reflection saved you time?

If you saw reflection as a time saving activity, then it may be something you are more likely to make a conscious decision of doing. Here are some of the ways reflection can help you be more effective:

• Help you in avoiding the same mistakes again and again, as reflecting on these will help you learn from them and of course correct them.

• Enable you to understand how to delegate more effectively by looking at what you could have done differently to get a better result.

• Understand who in your team needs more support or who has certain talents by reflecting on their performance.

• Build yourself confidence as well of others by looking at what was done well so that it is easily repeatable.

• Helping you be clearer about what you do and do not want by thinking through your past experiences and results.

So now that we have established that reflection is a powerful leadership tool, here are ways that you can reflect effectively:

Consciously make time for it

Reflection requires effort, thought and time. Regardless how busy you are, reflect in the shower, on the way to work or while you are brushing your teeth. All it requires is a conscious effort.

Ask some great questions

Questions help your brain think and focus your thought process. Here are some questions you can start with:

• What worked well? Why?

• What didn’t work well? Why?

• What does this situation or feeling remind you of?

• How can I use this experience in other situations?

• What would I do differently next time?

• What did I learn about myself in that situation?

Broaden your thinking

Our lives are complex so think about how you can apply your learning to other situations.

Think about patterns of behaviour or emotions you may notice. When we broaden our thinking we enable our learning to have a bigger benefit.

Reflection provides the brain an opportunity to pause amidst the chaos and untangle things, providing the opportunity for clarity, which as a leader is invaluable.

“Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action,” says Peter Drucker, an author and founder of Drucker Business Institute.

Here are some questions to leave you with:

• What has been your greatest learning in 2017?

• What have you learnt about yourself this year?